Story Highlights

WESTFIELD – He has not been perfect, and thank goodness for that. Otherwise, who’d believe what we’re watching? Without the occasional interception, the rusty underthrow of a quarterback who hasn’t played a game in almost 600 days, who’d believe Andrew Luck could possibly look as good he has looked since the Indianapolis Colts opened their 2018 NFL training camp?

It has been gold, his performance through two weeks at Grand Park in Westfield, and not the fool’s variety. He looks like the real thing, the real Andrew Luck, though we need Thursday night to confirm. Thank you, Colts coach Frank Reich, for insisting Luck play several series when the Colts open their preseason schedule at the Seattle Seahawks. Reich needs to analyze it. Luck needs to do it.

We need to see it.

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Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck took a lot of hits and missed all of last season. Signs in this year's training camp have been positive.
Indianapolis Star

This hasn’t been your normal NFL injury or rehab, veering completely off-road in November when Luck shut down his rehabilitation and left the country to try to get his shoulder right. At that point it was fair to wonder: Will Andrew ever play again? Luck admitted on Tuesday to wondering that very thing a time or two as a rehab normally finished well within a year – Drew Brees returned from labrum surgery in eight months in 2006, better than ever – reached 12 months, then 14, 16 …

Yes indeed, Luck will play his first football game, exhibition or otherwise, in what feels like forever. The official count is 585 days, a number so staggering that it made Reich momentarily lose his train of thought Tuesday.

“I’m guessing I’m –" Reich said, trying to answer a question about his own first game as coach, but stumbling over the number 585. “That’s crazy to put it like that with Andrew. I mean, that’s a long time. That’s a long time.”

It seems surreal, the past 20 months – think about that – which makes the past two weeks seem downright preposterous. Luck looks great, and sounds ecstatic. Normally enthusiastic in that giggling, goofy way of his, Luck has been more effusive, upbeat.

“I feel better,” he was saying at one point Tuesday. “I feel stronger, I feel more fit, I feel like my arm has more in it, a little more in it, a little more in it.”

And later:

“I’m a little happier with myself, which is the crux of the matter, and that allows me to really enjoy football,” he said. “It does feel a bit more like a game to me instead of a job or a profession. I don’t ever want to lose that feeling. I sort of get it when you hear guys in their late 30s or 40s and they’re talking about, ‘It’s like playing a kid’s game!’ I think I semi-understand what they feel in their hearts now.”

What you’re hearing is relief that his ordeal is almost over, that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t an oncoming train but an honest-to-God sunrise. And the numbers don’t lie. Granted they’re training camp numbers, against a defense told not to hit anybody too hard, and not the quarterback at all, but you can’t view Luck’s training camp numbers through the prism of “typical starting NFL quarterback.”

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The Indianapolis Colts will play their preseason game Thursday night at Seattle. Andrew Luck discusses what his game plan will be.
Clark Wade/IndyStar

No, view them through a more accurate prism: “NFL quarterback we weren’t sure would ever play again.”

Looked at from that angle, Luck’s training camp numbers – ahem – are glorious. According to statistics kept daily by a variety of beat reporters, Luck is 154-for-208 (74 percent).

And if you really want to hear something that sounds too good to be true, you should've been there the other day when offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni went on and on – and on – about how good Luck has looked in camp.

“It doesn’t look like this everywhere,” Sirianni was saying. “I know that. There’s not a lot of teams that can come out and practice and be like, ‘Man, we are just better because he’s on the field.’”

Which had Sirianni thinking about how good Luck will look after he knocks off the rust of a nearly 600-day layoff.

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen it,” he says. “I’ve been on teams that have lost to him. But (the rust) is falling off fast. That’s what’s amazing about him, because mentally he’s unbelievable. He can see it. He sees it faster than anyone I’ve ever been around and anyone I’ve ever seen. So mentally, it’s like he never missed a beat. Physically, it’s getting better and better every day. I can’t imagine it can get much better, but I can’t wait until it does.”

Indianapolis Colts Darius Leonard (53) and Najee Goode (52) practice on the special teams during their preseason training camp at Grand Park in Westfield on Tuesday, August 7, 2018. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Jack Doyle (84) and Eric Ebron (85) stretch out with their teammates during their preseason training camp at Grand Park in Westfield on Tuesday, August 7, 2018. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

At this point the interview got silly, and be thankful for that, because Sirianni’s answer was revealing. The question was funny, someone wondering: If coaches were brought in from the outside – say, from Mars – and those coaches didn’t know Luck was coming back from shoulder surgery, could they tell simply by watching him?

“Oh gosh,” Sirianni said, smiling but stumped, until he got going. “I think we would have to teach those guys how to coach for a little bit and show them what to look for first —being from Mars — but once they saw a couple other quarterbacks, I know exactly what would happen:

"'I like that guy (Luck) the best.'

“‘Well, he’s been hurt for the last year and a half.’”

“‘Oh really?’”

“I think,” Sirianni concluded with a grin, “that’s kind of how that conversation would go.”

Which brings me back to the interceptions. Oh, I could go somewhere else. I could stay positive here and tell you about Luck’s 75-yard touchdown pass the other day to K.J. Brent – 60 yards in the air – or his pair of recent red-zone lasers to T.Y. Hilton, both for touchdowns, and remind you of something Hilton had said last week when asked why he and Luck already looked so good together, so fast: “Just like when you wake up, you brush your teeth and wash your face,” Hilton had said. “It’s easy for us.”

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The first week of Colts Camp is in the books. Insiders Stephen Holder and Zak Keefer discuss Andrew Luck, physicality and plenty more.
Clark Wade/IndyStar

Or I could tell you about Luck’s obvious chemistry with three newcomers you might want to grab as sleepers in your fantasy draft: free agent acquisitions Eric Ebron at tight end and Ryan Grant at receiver, and sixth-round draft pick Deon Cain out of Clemson.

But let’s talk about the interceptions. Luck has tossed four in camp, including a woefully underthrown deep ball Tuesday that Pierre Desir gobbled up. But you want that imperfection; it makes the rest of his mostly perfect return seem believable. If this whole thing had been too easy, if there was no evidence of a defensive presence at all, then sure: Dismiss his training camp numbers. But there is competition out here in Westfield, players fighting for jobs on both sides of the ball —including defense, you understand – and Luck has carved those players up.

And these are just his first two weeks back.

How will his next two weeks look? Starts with Thursday night. Pinch me, but I think we’re actually going to see Andrew Luck play a football game. And I think he’s going to play very, very well.